This invention relates to load handling devices for the trucking industry and more particularly to a locking carrier for load restraining bars.
Load bars are used in trucking for restraining partial loads of discrete goods within van trucks and trailers for preventing the goods from tumbling down into unused space when the truck is underway. A single load bar is sometimes effective for this purpose; however, they are usually used in pairs, a normal complement being two or four of the bars. Typically, there is common ownership of the load bars and a tractor for the trailers. However, the trailers are often owned separately. When the load bars are not in use, they are ordinarily carried within a trailer, because they do not fit within the cab of the tractor, and if they are tied on to the tractor external to the cab, they are likely to be lost or stolen. Load bars that fall onto the highway from truck tractors also present a serious safety hazard. Thus the trucker must retrieve his load bars from the trailer at the end of a run or risk losing them. This is impractical for a number of reasons, including:
1. There may not be space for the load bars in a trailer that is fully loaded;
2. There are times when a tractor is dead-headed without a trailer;
3. When several different trailers are used in sequence, there is extra work snifting the load bars from trailer to trailer, even when they are not being used; and
4. The load bars are easily forgotten and left behind when they are kept out of sight inside of a trailer.
Thus there is a need for a device for transporting a plurality of load bars on the chassis of a truck tractor without interfering with normal operation of a tractor, that can be securely locked for preventing a loss or theft of the load bars, and that is easy to use and inexpensive to produce and install.